This column, in which I attempt to trace the etymological and semantic roots of terms used in the veterinary and biomedical sciences, has been favourably received. One of our readers, Professor Kristian Dalsgaard from the Vaccinology Group at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, asked about the origins of the word “vaccinology”, and it is against a background interest in cattle and their vaccination that I should like to ponder the relationship between wealth, cattle and the veterinary profession. It is a timely exercise, too. The smoking pyres in the United Kingdom and elsewhere have become a symbol of our bewilderingly low-tech control strategy for foot and mouth disease in the 21^st century, and, as you will read, they give a new meaning to the term “cash burn”. Welcome to this column on etyrminology, which is dedicated to “cattle”.

Bovine musings
The term “cattle” refers to domesticated ruminants of the species Bos taurus and Bos indicus, which nowadays are bred mainly for their meat and milk production, and less as draught animals. The term is broad in its usage and is not gender specific: it can be used to refer to the cow (adult female), steer (castrated male), bull (adult male) and ox (mature castrated male, used for draught purposes). An infant, on the other hand, is a calf, an animal between one and two years old is a yearling, and a maiden cow (i.e. one that has yet to have a calf) is called a heifer.

The word “cattle” is a peculiar one, in the English language as well as in others (German: Vieh, Rindvieh; French: bétail, bovines; Spanish: ganado: Italian: bestiame), for it is a 'plurale tantum' (a grammatical term derived from Latin and used for words that only exist in the plural form). Cattle are not viewed as individuals that occur singly; they are the prototype of a gregarious animal - a perception that may stem from their relationship to human possession and wealth, where more is better. In veterinary scientific literature the plurale tantum character of “cattle” sometimes gives rise to awkward formulations. It is incorrect to inject “a cattle” and injecting “a bovine” - originally an adjective and not a noun - does not sound right.

Let us now start our etyrminological journey. In various societies throughout history, wealth has been measured in terms of the possession of cattle. The word is related to capital and chattel (via caput, Latin: head, number), and pecuniary is derived from pecus (Latin: cattle). In Roman antiquity pecunia meant wealth or money, and the Spanish word for animal husbandry is still pecuaria, and ganado (Spanish: cattle) is related to ganar, meaning to gain, to earn, to win. The possession of cattle was a sign of wealth for nomadic tribes as well as for sedentary farmers. And despite the Romans having already practiced the systematic breeding of cattle for the improvement of beef and dairy qualities, it was not until after 1760 that it was established in England.

The Dutch word vee and German word Vieh, both meaning livestock, are related to English 'fee', which refers to a monetary charge made by an institution, law, or for professional services, such as a surgeon's fee. In Welsh, Da means goodness or value as well as head, or number, of cattle, and gwerth stands for value or worth, which in turn is derived from gwarthek, again meaning cattle. Similar roots are found in the Slavic languages. In Polish, the word for cattle is bydlo and relates to being, standing, living, home, or possession.

Similar derivations are found in non-indogermanic languages, such as Hebrew, a language of the afro-asian family, in which mikne not only stands for cattle but also for goats and camels. Once again the elements of possession and wealth are emphasised, and the root kne, or kana, means to buy. In the Bantu language Lunyomkole, spoken in Uganda, ente means cattle, and sente money. The literal translation of the Javanese word Råjåkåyå is “rich king”, but its meaning today is wealth and cattle. Finally, cho-chiku in Japanese can be translated as “saving money” - cho meaning to save, and a modified form of the chiku character denotes cattle.

In view of the economic connotations of “cattle” it is not surprising that they are intimately linked to man's cultural history. Etymologic traces are found in the most unlikely places. The term “bulimia”, the syndrome characterised by repeated bouts of overeating and a neurotic preoccupation with the control of body weight, is derived from the Greek bous, meaning ox, and limos, meaning hunger. Presumably this is because one with bulimia has the appetite of an ox.

We should now return to Professor Dalsgaard's query about the derivation and meaning of the word "vaccinology". The term obviously denotes the science of vaccines and vaccination, which again has a bovine association and was the cause for this discussion on “cattle”. The Latin word vacca means cow - referred to, incidentally, as bos femina by M. Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC; De natura deorum) - is where it all started, and vaccinus means “stemming from cows”. A virus, taken originally from pock lesions of cows by Edward Jenner in 1796 to immunise his neighbour's son, was named vaccinia after this term. It was later used in the worldwide eradication of smallpox in 1978, which is probably the greatest medical feat ever achieved. The role of cattle in the history of vaccination is authentic, but the origin of the virus that was used in the campaign against smallpox remains uncertain, and what we call the cowpox virus today actually resides in wild small rodents. Incidentally, all orthopoxviruses are related antigenically and are cross-protective, which means vaccination against smallpox was the first heterotypic immune prophylaxis.

What of our current use of the term “vaccinology”? A web search reveals it has become quite common, yielding over 1000 hits (27 March 2001), and when searching PubMed about 45 articles containing this keyword are found each year since 1997. A review by D. Salk and J. Salk may be where the term was first used [3], and although its spiritual father may have been Jonas Salk, of poliomyelitis vaccine fame, it was Maurice Hilleman who made the term popular and used it in two subsequent reviews [1, 2].

It is also appropriate to remind the veterinary profession that it owes its own designation to the bovine species. Recorded in the writings of Sextus Pompeius Festus, the Latin veterinus means “pertaining to traction animals (veterinae)”. The Roman author was a lexicographer who lived some time between A.D. 100 and 400 and his surviving work, On the Meaning of Words, is a primary source for Roman scholarship and Roman antiquities. While the first veterinary schools, such as in Lyon, France, focussed their attention on the military horse, veterinary “science” in antiquity started with buiatrics.

Cattle are important to man. They provide his food, his wealth and his joy, the latter exemplified by the complimentary reference to the goddess Hera who was known as “...the one with the eyes of a cow...”. Is it not ironic, then, that pecuniary arguments are now being used to withhold vaccines from cows?


Adjectives that describe animals
In view of the many terms in scientific literature derived from Latin, the following list of animals and their associated adjectives may be useful:

Animal	Adjective
bear	ursine
bee	apian
bird	passerine
bull	taurine
calf (or veal)	vituline
cat	feline
civet	viverine
cow	bovine
crow	corvine
deer	cervine
dog	canine
fish	piscine
fox	vulpine
frog	ranine
goat	caprine
goose	anserine
gull	larine
hare	leporine
horse	equine
mouse	murine
peacock	pavonine
pig	porcine
sable	zibeline
seal	otarine, phocine
sheep	ovine
snake	elapine, anguine, colubrine
tortoise	testudine
wasp	vespine
weasel	musteline
wolf	lupine

References

1. Hilleman, M.R. (1986) The science of vaccines in present and future perspective. Med. J. Aust. 144, 360-364.

2. Hilleman, M.R. (1986) Vaccinology in practical perspective. Dev. Biol. Stand. 63, 5-13.

3. Salk, D. and Salk, J. (1984) Vaccinology of poliomyelitis. Vaccine 2, 59-74.
Other useful sources


R.Klotz (1853) Handwörterbuch der lateinischen Sprache. George Westermann Verlag Braunschweig

Schiere, J.B. (1995) Cattle, Straw and System Control: A Study of Straw Feeding Systems. PhD thesis, Wageningen Agricultural University, Wageningen, The Netherlands.